Pokémon Sun and Moon mascots Solgaleo and Lunaala possibly leaked

The idea of a few hundred new Pokémon to catch in any iteration of the pocket monster franchise is always a big magnet for the kinds of terrible people who religiously play anything related to Pokémon (Hi mom!). New evolutions, new critters and all that jazz. But all of those new creatures are nothing when compared to the chance to get your hands on a brand new legendary.

They’re not only the most powerful Pokémon by a wide margin, they’re also the reason why you’ve chosen a specific iteration of the game that you’ve been delving into for dozens of hours. Let’s be honest here: Pokémon purchases are decided by whichever pocket monster looks the coolest, a sales tactic that Nintendo has mastered ever since they asked players to decide between Blastoise and Charizard on the very first games in the series.

Since then, fans had to choose over the likes of Dialga, Palkia, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Groudon, Kyogre and few others when it came to release day. That horrible, horrible decision will need to be made again when Pokémon Sun and Moon arrives on release day for people who are too poor to buy each copy of the game (Hi mom! Again!). This year, there’s a celestial theme to the Pokémon madness. Specifically, a belching giant of hot gas and solar energy in Pokémon Sun and the small celestial object that keeps up with our planet that will be present in Pokémon Moon.

And it looks like our latest mascots will be Solgaleo and Lunaala. That’s possibly according to a trademark that NeoGAF picked up on, where trademarks from Pokémon Sun and Moon developer GameFreak were discovered. Here they are, in all their legal glory:

It sounds like the kind of Pokémon that would grace those covers, presumably while Solrock and Lunatone are left to cry gravely tears in the Generation 3 pile of unwanted pocket monsters. Pokémon Sun and Moon is out later this year, and this decision over which one to go for, is tearing me apart Lisatone.